A council has backed an option for a new junction on the M4 that avoids crossing green belt land.

South Gloucestershire Council will now recommend the western option for the planned junction 18A, which is expected to create 5,700 jobs and generate £449 million for the economy.

However the eastern option - opposed by campaigners in Pucklechurch, Siston and other communities a link road would cross - will remain on the table until 2022. The final decision will lie with Highways England and the Department for Transport.

Dozens of residents attended a meeting on Monday, March 12 at the Kingswood Civic Centre to reiterate their opposition to the eastern option.

A map showing the two junction 18a options

Mary Webb’s family has farmed land in the Siston for more than 100 years but she said the western option would ‘slice through’ it.

She said: “My husband has been a farmer all his life. My son will be the fourth generation and my grandson will be the fifth.

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"This is causing a huge amount of suffering and stress to our family. We farm beef and sheep, 450 animals.

"If the road is completed we shall never be able to farm the land ever again. It would be the death knell we are dreading.”

Mrs Webb said her family had applied to build a house on their land but permission was refused permission due to the impact on the green belt and a conservation area. She said a compulsory purchase of her farm would be inadequate to purchase land elsewhere.

Lisa Fry said she bought what she thought would be her ‘forever home’ three years ago, and then the plans for a new junction were unveiled. She raised concerns that if she now tried to sell her house, she would be legally obliged to tell potential buyers that the eastern option is still a possibility.

South Gloucestershire Council's cabinet meeting on Monday March 12 to discuss a new junction for the M4 (Image: Stephen Sumner)

Another speaker, Steve Wood, said the eastern option would result in ‘more traffic, more congestion and more pollution’.

He told the council's cabinet members: “Please recognise us, the people that live here. Respect our life and how we choose to live it. The eastern option would be a living nightmare."

The council’s business case shows that the new junction would inevitably impact the environment but the eastern option would affect green belt land and a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Pucklechurch.

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The preferred western option could create 5,700 new jobs and generate a further £449 million, compared to 2,200 new jobs £174 million for the eastern option, the council says.

The western option was backed by 51 per cent of people who responded to a questionnaire, whereas the figure for the eastern option was 17 per cent.

Stephen Hill said opponents to the eastern option were not ‘nimbys’ but the "stewards of a precious landscape we hope we can protect for future generations".

More than 100 people attended a protest in Pucklechurch last summer against plans to run an access road for a new M4 junction near the village (Image: Dave Betts)

Parish councillor John Hunt said Siston Parish Council had allocated £3,000 from its £32,000 precept for next year to oppose the eastern option and said it is ready to launch a campaign.

He added: “We are going to oppose any eastern option. I just hope ministers stand firm with residents and remove this threat to Siston.”

Labour group leader Pat Rooney told her cabinet colleagues: “The eastern option remains on the table. I urge you to apply pressure to kill off the eastern option at the earliest opportunity.”

Council officers concluded that there was a good business case for a new junction and a link to the A4174 Avon Ring Road. It said the western location was the preferred option and the eastern option is no longer deliverable.